URC goes AAA

The popular brand of Universal Remote Control, URC, is now available in Australia through Advance Audio Australia, which aims to "grow the market through quality technical support, a high level of sales support and involvement, and a tight distribution network, a reflection of their “quality-first" mentality"., according to Nigel Ng, General Manager for Advance Audio Australia.

URC was established in 1991, based in Harrison, New York, and has come a long way from the early wand-type remote controls, including the launch in late 2017 of Total Control 2.0, a full upgrade to its flagship automation and control system. Total Control can integrate home theater, music, lighting, door locks, thermostats, surveillance cameras and more, with programmed scenes(Good Morning, Welcome Home, Movie Time and Good Night, etc) for combined one-touch control.

Particularly interesting for those with smart speaker devices, Total Control integrates with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for voice control. Virtually any Total Control function that can be performed with a button press can be activated via voice control.

Total Control 2.0 adds to the URC ranges of Complete Control and MX Home Control.

“URC is very pleased to have Advance Audio on board for the Australia market,” says Lars Granoe, URC Vice President, Product Development. “We look forward to actively collaborating with Advance Audio and their custom integration customers to deliver best-in-class control and automation solutions for residential and commercial applications.”

Over the next months, Advance Audio says it will ramp up internal infrastructure to be able to support the dealer base, with a full launch of the URC suite of current and future products at Integrate 2018 in Sydney.

Big movie sound comes from a good multichannel AV receiver – and this year’s key models are gaining more streaming, new multiroom abilities and even voice control. Denon, Marantz, NAD and Yamaha are all reviewed in the new Sound+Image, along with the latest Google smart speaker, TVs from LG and Sony, wireless noise-cancelling headphones and more!